With the International Cricket Council continuing plans as scheduled for the 2021 50-over Women’s World Cup, Hayley Matthews reckons West Indies will need to improve and build on form to be competitive.
The 22-year-old was speaking on the Mason and Guests radio programme where she reflected on the team’s performance at the T20 World Cup recently and suggested what needs to be done in the 50-over tournament next year.
“I think this year probably just wasn’t our best if you look at World Cups. It’s not every time you are going to get into the final and semi-finals and it so happened that this was one of those tournaments for us. I think what is important is that we take the positives out of the tournament and look to improve on what we didn’t do so well and hope we do well.
“Once everything around the world calms down, we have a 50-over World Cup next year and we can get into some good nick and hopefully compete in that,” she stated.
Looking back on their preparation, the Bajan-born all-rounder debunked claims of fitness being an issue but suggested that it was their on the day performance that led to their poor run.
“We were in camp for the last two years, so definitely I think it doesn’t have to do much with the work we have been putting in of late.
“I guess when you go to a big tournament like that you have seven or eight teams who also want to do well and it just comes down to who plays the best cricket on the day and, unfortunately, when we needed to play the better cricket we just weren’t able to do it.
“The girls have been going for a very long time but I don’t think it is a lack of fitness but a lack thereof of us performing on the day and being able to execute with the squad that we know we have,” she noted.
Over the last two months, cricket has endured a complete shutdown which has been extended for at least another month. But during this time, the West Indies all-rounder is using her time to work on different aspects of her game.
“It is something going wrong in the whole world so we don’t have much control over that. Obviously it’s frustrating not being able to play cricket, not being able to represent the region, but at the same time I think it’s a good time to be home after the World Cup and get in a good mental space for now and be calm before we get back out there,” Matthews explained. (Romario Samaroo)
